Gonzaga gets its groove back in an unlikely locale

If a college basketball team is searching for lost mojo, Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn., is one of the least-recommended places to look.

But Gonzaga appeared to find what it was looking for there with Wednesday night's 89-79 overtime victory over Tennessee. So for anyone thinking that the perennial West Coast Conference champions appeared vulnerable for a league season that begins Friday – think again.

Gonzaga entered 2009 on a three-game losing streak, which might have tempted naive newcomers or incurable optimists from the other WCC schools to have visions of an end to the Bulldogs' reign as top dogs.

Instead, the Zags ended their streak and a 37-game home winning streak at Thompson-Boling (second-longest currently running in the NCAA) by Tennessee with the win.

It was GU's second victory over the Southeastern Conference contenders in five weeks. And if Gonzaga (9-4) can win on the road in Knoxville, how tough can it be in the next two months to do the same in Portland, San Francisco, Moraga, Santa Clara, Malibu, Los Angeles and San Diego?

On Monday, Gonzaga coach Mark Few held a teleconference for the Tennessee and WCC media. And while things hadn't been going the Zags' way, there was a lot more determination than resignation in Few's voice.

“We've played the toughest nonconference schedule of anybody (No. 8 nationally), and we've been knocked back a little bit mentally,” Few said. “We've got to get our mojo back, get our confidence back and start playing the way we know we can.”

The starting moment of what looks now to be a temporary Zags downturn wasn't hard for Few to identify.

It came with 7.8 seconds to play in then-No. 8 Gonzaga's contest against No. 2 Connecticut in the “Battle of Seattle” on Dec. 20. UConn guard A.J. Price hit a three-pointer from well beyond the 20-feet-9-inch mark with Gonzaga guard Jeremy Pargo draped all over him to force an overtime from which the Huskies emerged with an 88-83 victory.

“If A.J. Price's prayer of a three-pointer doesn't go in, I think it changes our whole mentality,” Few said. “We had made a huge effort against one of the best teams in the country, and that took the wind out of our sails.”

A victory over Connecticut and Few is convinced that the Zags would have been “in a better place mentally” when they faced Portland State three nights later.

Portland State, now 9-4, upset Gonzaga 77-70 at the Zags' own McCarthey Athletic Center, where losses are rare.

Gonzaga then proceeded to drop a 66-65 decision at Utah on New Year's Eve to end 2008 on a three-game losing streak and drop out of the Top 25 rankings. Those were the circumstances under which GU went into Wednesday night's big intersectional matchup.

Austin Daye, Matt Bouldin and company pulled together with the “Rocky Top” ringing in their ears. And if all's not completely right with the Zags' world going into Saturday's WCC opener at home against Portland, it looks a lot better than it did.

The 2008-09 team was hailed in the preseason as potentially the best Gonzaga assemblage ever. It was ranked in the Top 5 in the nation in some preseason publications and, once the season started, climbed to as high as No. 4 in the polls.

But with the three-game losing streak, former UCLA coach and ESPN commentator Steve Lavin – during the Michigan State-Ohio State game Tuesday night – tagged the Zags as among the season's biggest disappointments.

“It's not the most talented team we've ever had at Gonzaga,” Few said on Monday. “We do have depth and good players, but unless we're working together and helping each other out, we don't have the kind of team that can win on talent alone.”

Few expressed concern about the quick transition his team must now make to the WCC opener against an improved Portland.

But whatever the outcome had been in Knoxville, it would have been hard for veteran WCC watchers to conceive of the Zags not continuing their dominance of the league.

Gonzaga has won the WCC regular-season championship outright the last six years in a row and has won or shared the title 10 of the last 11. The only aberration in the streak was 2000, when Pepperdine prevailed.

“I think, if you look at talent alone, they still have the best in the league,” said Bill Grier, the former Zags assistant who's now head coach at USD. “And they're still the champions. They have that going for them until somebody proves otherwise.”

Gonzaga was the preseason choice in a vote of league head coaches to win again. The Zags received five first-place votes, Saint Mary's two and USD one (rules precluded coaches from voting for their own teams.)

The rest of the coaches' preseason order: Santa Clara, San Francisco, Portland, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. As the pre-conference season ends, that looks like a pretty good list from which to work.

Saint Mary's is 13-1. The Gaels' preconference strength of schedule was 133rd among the more than 300 Division I schools, suitable for purposes of building team confidence likely higher than Gonzaga's before Wednesday night.

Coach Randy Bennett and the Gaels have complete confidence in sophomore point guard Patrick Mills, internationally renowned for his play on the Australian Olympic team.

USD (8-7) had a preconference strength of schedule rating of 56 and a nonleague season with much more drama than Grier would have preferred.

Suspensions for violations of team rules cost three players a combined total of 18 games, and injuries sidelined De'Jon Jackson for eight games and returning All-WCC guard Brandon Johnson for the season.

While Johnson's loss is a major blow, the return from suspension of sophomore point guard Trumaine Johnson and Jackson's approaching recovery give the Toreros four of their five returning starters from last year's WCC Tournament championship team. That team upset Connecticut in the opening round of the NCAA playoffs.

Wins at Mississippi State and at home over Marshall in the Toreros' last two games suggest a possible smoothing of the rough spots just in time for WCC play.

Santa Clara (7-9) has one of the best big men in the league in 6-foot-11, 275-pound John Bryant, who is second in the nation behind Oklahoma's Blake Griffin for overall rebounds and fourth for per-game average (12.3).

San Francisco (8-7) has the league's leading scorer in Dior Lowhorn (20.3 ppg) and a winning record for the nonconference season for the first time in three years.

Portland (9-6) has its top eight scorers back from last season and has already matched last season's win total before starting league play.

Pepperdine (3-13), with prodigal coach Tom Asbury returning after an absence going on two decades, has seven freshmen and/or sophomores among its top nine players, six of whom were not on the roster last year.

Loyola Marymount (1-15) had first-year coach Bill Bayno step away in November for personal health reasons. And injury problems have the Lions down to only seven scholarship players.

Projections that the WCC, which sent three teams to the NCAA last year, would be better than ever have not panned out. But as Few said: “There are a lot of good players and a lot of teams with a lot of experience.”